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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRoger Penske on Wednesday parted ways with the three top leaders of Team Penske’s IndyCar organization in the wake of a cheating scandal that has put two of his three drivers starting at the back of the Indy 500 field.
Team President Tim Cindric, Managing Director Ron Ruzewksi and General Manager Kyle Moyer are out in the wake of two years of “organizational failures,” the team announced on X.
The team’s move came two days after IndyCar officials announced that Penske cars driven by 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power and defending champion Josef Newgarden, who won back-to-back 500s, would be moved to the back of the grid following the Sunday pre-qualifications discovery of car modifications presumably meant to give aerodynamic advantage.
In describing the team’s actions, Roger Penske said “nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams.”
This year’s incident comes a year after Team Penske was found to be in violation of IndyCar’s “push-to-pass” rules. After the 2024 season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Florida, IndyCar retroactively stripped Newgarden of his win and disqualified Penske driver Scott McLaughlin for using the booster technology on restarts when it’s not allowed.
At that time, Team Penske suspended McLaughlin’s and Newgarden’s strategists for two events, including the 2024 Indianapolis 500.
Team Penske officials—including Cindric—called the push-to-pass violations an honest mistake. And while that situation was met with skepticism at the time, the newest allegations have been met with frustration, incredulity and even disgust.
And that’s understandable.
The complicating factor, of course, is that Penske isn’t just the owner of Team Penske. If that were the case, the actions he took in firing his top leaders would be enough.
But he owns the track and IndyCar. He is responsible for the paychecks of the people who have to identify whether his team is doing something wrong, report that wrongdoing, decide and issue the punishment, and more. That is far from an ideal situation, no matter how good of a steward overall that Roger Penske might be for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indianapolis 500.
We agree with Chip Ganassi, a competing team owner, who said on Kevin Harvick’s podcast that Team Penske needs “to be held to an even higher standard to protect the sport.”
We applaud IndyCar President Doug Boles’ decision to punish the two Penske cars that were in violation of the rules by moving them to the last two spots on the grid. “The integrity of the Indianapolis 500 is paramount, and this violation of the IndyCar rule against modification to this part and using it ‘as supplied’ is clear,” he said.
Now it’s Roger Penske’s turn to take additional steps to ensure the integrity of the sport. That might mean—as many of those involved in the sport are requesting—that an independent organization be established or brought in to oversee parts of the process. That could be the technical inspections or the rulemaking or, well, we’re not the experts here.
But action is warranted. We look forward to seeing what Penske and IndyCar do next with the integrity of the sport in mind.•
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